Hedge Fund Job Compensation Varies By Several Factors

The study reveals that funds in the $500 million to $1 billion range pay the best. Small funds struggle to build critical mass from a personnel point of view due to management fees not being high enough to cover a large base salary pool. But as funds increase in size to over $1 billion AUM, the average pay actually decreases.

When the fund performs well, employees are paid well – most of the time. The hedge funds reporting this year performed well with the majority reporting more than 10% return (and 15% reporting over 25% return). The highest average pay by fund performance did not correlate with this, however, as those firms reporting flat performance (that is, no return) had the highest average hedge fund pay.